Ms Kathryn Meghen:

I thank the committee for the invitation to attend this meeting. I am chief executive officer of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, RIAI, and I am joined by my colleague, Mr. O'Mahony, who is our spokesperson on housing. Founded in 1839, the RIAI has 3,900 members and is the support and registration body for architects in Ireland and the membership and support body for architectural technologists. Our mission is to drive excellence in architecture and the built environment, with a focus on developing policy and contributing to legislation that supports a better built environment. The RIAI works to ensure the safety of the public through the efficient and effective administration of the register of architects and the maintenance of standards within architectural education.

The RIAI welcomes the establishment of the Land Development Agency, LDA, as a key pillar in the delivery of the national planning framework and Project Ireland 2040. The challenges we face as a country, including climate change, a growing population, an ageing demographic and new patterns of work, leisure and retail, mean we need new strategies and vehicles to deliver a coherent and high-quality built environment. With the country facing so many critical challenges and having a number of great opportunities, we must now make decisions based on national long-term need. The LDA provides an opportunity to develop sites that meet the national need and move on from the inter-county, intercity and inter-parish debates that so frequently dominate discussions about where and what we build.

We need a coherent, ambitious plan for State-owned lands that focuses on delivering quality and helps to bring stability to the unpredictable housing market. The LDA gives the State the opportunity to drive this change and to lead in delivering a new type of housing that supports quality and innovation. However, we cannot build housing in isolation. The development of each landbank will require an informed study of existing and required infrastructure, the present condition of the site and a well-developed design strategy. The institute recommends that such studies are undertaken prior to the sale of any public landbanks. In the short-term, a pilot scheme should be funded to examine the optimum housing mix potential for each site to ensure that the homes, infrastructure and public realm that are developed are suitable for the people who will live there. There is scope for developing housing schemes based on a multi-generational approach, so that the needs of different cohorts of people, including students, young families and older people, can be met on an integrated basis on the same site. This will help to foster a sense of community in new housing developments and encourage private investment in amenities that match the requirements for everyone living there.

The procurement processes the LDA uses to identify architectural and other built environment professionals must focus on long-term quality and provide a clear pipeline of the work to be commissioned. The agency might consider the principles set out in the RIAI's publication, A Guide to Smart Public Procurement, which provides for a procurement model focused on quality outcomes and ensures that businesses of a range of scales and locations are eligible to tender for works. The RIAI strongly recommends the use of architectural design competitions as an integral part of the LDA's procurement processes to ensure the development of quality architecture.

The RIAI welcomes the draft legislation the committee is examining today, but we do have several observations to make. The objectives of the LDA set out under head 8 are comprehensive. However, we recommend that object 2(c), which concerns the aim of achieving a positive financial return for the State, be interpreted as broadly as possible. The financial return might include stimulation of the development of the wider area, which will bring long-term State benefit.

The functions for the LDA set out under head 9 are likewise comprehensive. Again, we propose that object 3(a), which deals with the establishment and maintenance of a register of relevant public lands, be broadly interpreted. A central register of all publicly owned lands is required to allow for informed decision-making at national level.

In defining the role for the LDA in the proposed legislation, the State should consider developing protocols to enable any uplift in the value of public or private landholdings consequent to rezoning to be either fully allocated to the State or equitably allocated between the State and any private owner affected by rezoning. The uplift in land value may then be used for the public good through infrastructure, public realm development, community development, amenity development and other sustainable developments. Precedents for this approach exist in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, and Germany.

To deliver on its functions successfully, it is important that all of the LDA's powers and resources be made available. The LDA requires sufficient staffing and resources to unlock the potential of sites for new housing. As has occurred with legislation other than the LDA legislation, the intent and ambition are detailed but the tools to deliver are not followed through. To be a success, this cannot be allowed to happen with the LDA.

The choices available to us as to how we develop as a country are reducing. We must take a long-term, holistic view of how and where we deliver our housing and built infrastructure. We must meet new improved standards of building and deliver new models of increased density to ensure the damage to the planet and our impact on climate change are reversed.

The RIAI welcomes the initiative to establish the Land Development Agency and asks that the legislation be progressed as a matter of urgency.